


Just A Normal Boy

by jucee



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-19
Updated: 2012-06-19
Packaged: 2017-11-08 02:16:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/438035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jucee/pseuds/jucee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By his standards, Touya Akira is a very normal boy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just A Normal Boy

Touya Akira is sixteen years old. He leads a very normal life for a sixteen-year-old boy, by his standards, although he occasionally gets the impression that his standards may not be so normal. 

He is an only child, because his mother had thoroughly disliked the messiness of giving birth. His father likes children, though, and is quite good with them despite his intimidating appearance. Besides his parents, there are only two others that Akira has known from birth -- Ogata Seiji is one, and go is the other.

He is often told the story by his mother: on the day of his birth, Ogata came to visit them in the hospital. He brought her a bouquet of flowers, a _goban_ for his father, and Akira nothing at all. And in that room, as he lay quietly in his mother’s arms, the two men began to play. Akira sometimes imagines that his first memory is of _pa-chi_ , _pa-chi_ , although he knows of course that the human brain is incapable of forming memories at such an early stage of life. When he was younger, he always wanted to ask Ogata why he was the only one to not receive a present; he was fifteen years old when he faced Ogata in an official game for the first time, and for the first time he understood that Ogata’s gift to him was the memory of _pa-chi_ , _pa-chi_.

He is sixteen years old, and he goes to Kaio High School. His favourite subjects are mathematics, English and history; his least favourite is chemistry, although he receives excellent marks in all of his classes. He doesn’t participate in club activities, and he misses school every Thursday, and occasionally on Wednesdays. He doesn’t really have any friends -- perhaps because he’s absent so often, perhaps because he’s uncomfortable with people his own age -- but his classmates seem to like him.

He finds the concept of fame somewhat ironic, or at least in regards to his own fame. There are people all over the world who know of him, yet in his own country, in his own school, he is unknown to many. He neither seeks nor wants fame, and his everyday life is rarely interrupted by fans wanting his autograph.

On weekdays he spends approximately three hours studying for school and four hours studying go per day, and his weekends are devoted almost entirely to go. And of these go-devoted hours, most are spent with Shindou Hikaru, as they have been for the past year, and it doesn’t bother Akira that he sees Shindou more often than he sees his parents. Of course, it means that ramen features more prominently in his diet than it used to, and also that he shouts much more than he used to; Ashiwara often tells him that both are a good change of pace.

Akira is an intensely private person by nature. Whenever he is questioned about Shindou, he states very simply and very politely that it’s nobody’s business but their own. He doesn’t understand why such a statement elicits the responses that it does -- Ashiwara grins in a way that Akira assumes is supposed to be sly, and nudges him in the ribs with a bony elbow; Ogata puffs sullenly on his cigarette and mutters something about feeling old; Shindou’s friend, Waya, screeches and yells like a monkey, until Shindou’s other friend, Isumi, calms him down; and even his father reacts strangely, professing his unflinching support for whatever path Akira might take in life. The only path Akira can see, though, is the path to the Hand of God, and he knows that he and Shindou are leading each other to that place just beyond their reach.

They are sixteen years old, and so is Yashiro Kiyoharu, and the three of them represent Japan for a second time in the Hokuto Cup. Akira plays first board, which he thinks is fair, although at the same time he feels rather indignant on Shindou’s behalf that Kurata decides this without hesitation; the contradiction isn’t lost on him. Yashiro is pleased that he has another chance to play Hon Su-Yeong, and Akira faces Ko Yeong-Ha for the first time. It’s perhaps a little strange that he feels as if he’s taking revenge when he wins, but Shindou’s voice is boisterous and his smile is bright, and that is immediate and enough. This year the competition is a draw: Japan beats Korea which beats China which beats Japan. They still have another chance, though, and Akira knows with uncompromising certainty what the result will be the following year.

He is sixteen years old, and lives in a large house by himself because his parents are often overseas. He goes to school and earns money from his job, enough to pay the bills without touching the bank account that his mother has set up for household expenses. He does his homework diligently, but would much rather spend the time playing go. His rival is his best friend, and they see each other practically every day, as rivals and best friends do. He knows what he wants to do with the rest of his life, and he’s already doing it.

By his standards, Touya Akira is a very normal boy.


End file.
